Flash Cat
- Steer left - Turn right - Jump - Brake - Use ability |preq/seq= |development= |credits='Artwork' Simon Hunter Programming Carl Trelfa Music Dave Cowen |special= |music='Track 1': Track 2: |avatarsFromGame= |description = Weave your feline way along trap laden courses aboard your legged craft.}} Flash Cat, also written as Flashcat, is a racing game released on January 21, 2009. The player controls a cat riding on a caterpillar vehicle through eighteen different courses. The game is currently the only Nitrome game to feature a kind of pseudo-3D. This game was made a distributable game on April 13th, 2012 and was one of the launch titles for the iPhone and Android Nitrome Touchy, launched on October 31st, 2012, for the iPhone, and November 21st, 2012, for Android. ---- Controls Flash Left/right - Steer Up - Jump Down - Brake Space bar - Use special abilities Nitrome Touchy Buttons: Brake button, special button, jump button Usage: The player's smartphone acts as a steering wheel. Tilting the smartphone left will move the player's caterpillar left, and moving the smartphone right will move it right. The left button (labeled "brake") causes an immediate halt to the cat, while the right button causes the cat to jump. The bottom pink bar has a button labelled "special". This button has a cat head on it, and will cause the player to use whatever powerup they currently have. Condensed *Brake button - make an immediate stop *Special button - bounce (Mega Bounce)/become invincible (Invincibility)/fire bullets (Bug Bullets)/activate enormous boost (Turbo)/create shockwave (Shockwave) *Jump button - jump * Steer smartphone - move caterpillar horizontally Levels Flash Cat has 18 levels. In each level of Flash Cat, the player is racing down a track. The player has to try to stay on the track, as well as maintain an increasing speed. Hitting hazards or enemies will immediately cause a stop in their speed, and a loss of health. Speed is very important, as without an increasing or high speed, going over some jumps will cause the player to miss the track and fall off the stage. Power ups can be obtained to aid the player in levels, and often have to be obtained to progress through the level. Level 1 "Stay on the track, collect those tokens and hit the boosts." The player spends the first part navigating the track and collecting tokens before using boost pads to leap over large gaps. Finally, they use turbo pads to increase their speed while crossing more gaps. Level 2 "Use the up button to hop over green spikes and small gaps." The player navigates a narrower track as they use boost and turbo pads again. They then hop over green spikes for the first time before using several turbo pads to cross a very large gap. Finally, they can use a boost pad to get tokens in the air instead of crossing a gap. Level 3 "Use space bar to activate mega bounce and turbo pick ups." The player receives mega bounce pickups, allowing them to leap over impassable gaps. They then navigate around some walls before using another Mega Bounce, this time to leap over lasers. They then pick up a turbo powerup allowing them to gain enough speed to cross a large gap, and they get another mega bounce to leap over some more gaps. Level 4 "Use the Invincibility pick up to smash bad guys. The mega bounce can be used in the air." The player gets the invincibility powerup, allowing them to destroy the aliens they run into. They then get mega bounce, which they must use in midair after the first jump in order to fully cross the gap. Afterwards, they must navigate around squids and dodge their bullets before getting another mega bounce and using it twice once again in order to cross a series of walls in midair. The final mega bounce left can be used to get another invincibility, allowing the player protection from the last wave of enemies. Level 5 "Cracked walls can be destroyed with bug bullets." The player receives bug bullets which they must use to destroy cracked walls blocking their path, as well as aliens. Turbo pads then appear, allowing the player to cross large gaps but also forcing them to quickly shoot down any aliens in the way. The player must also steer in midair when crossing gaps in order to reach unaligned platforms. Level 6 "Use the shockwave bomb to clear the track." The player encounters fans and has to resist being blown off the track while also hopping over spikes. They then must cross a large gap and gain the shockwave power-up, allowing them to wipe the incoming hordes of aliens off the track. This happens twice before the level ends. Level 7 "Jump through the multiplier hoops to double and triple your score." The player has to destroy a couple of cracked walls with bug bullets before receiving a mega bounce power-up, allowing them to jump through the multiplier hoops which double their scores from collecting tokens and destroying objects. They gain another set of bug bullets to attack incoming squids, and then receive another mega bounce. The player can deviate off the main path to jump through more multiplier hoops, and on the deviated path they can gain an invincibility power-up, allowing them to ram through the cracked walls and robots, though they can get bug bullets should they stick to the main path. The player must then shoot down squids and robots with bug bullets as they hop over spikes. Level 8 "Don't be scared to use Mega Bounce and Turbos as soon as you pick them up." The player must dodge a few aliens before leaping over a gap; if they go left in midair they can go through multiplier hoops. They then gain a Turbo to leap over a large gap before getting a Mega Bounce; it is not required to use it except to get some 500 tokens over a cracked wall. The player then gets another Turbo allowing them to cross an even bigger gap immediately afterward. They get another Mega Bounce which they must immediately use to leap over some walls and then a gap, taking them to a very narrow track. The track becomes even narrower as the player uses boosts and Mega Bounce to navigate to the end. Level 9 "Try and hit every Turbo Pad." The entire level consists of the player having to hit turbo pads in order to leap over gaps, while also dodging green spikes placed around the tracks. Level 10 "Watch out - the track splits." The player shoots a few squids with bug bullets before the track splits into many paths; the player is given a mega bounce power-up and invincibility power-up as some paths lead them through multiplier hoops. The player then ends up on a narrow track with walls to dodge, and then they are given turbo powerups to get them across large gaps. They must then resist fans on a very narrow track before gaining an invincibility power-up which allows them to ram through the robots and walls in the way. They then get a mega bounce, allowing them to avoid more robots as the level concludes. Level 11 "Jump or Shoot? the choice is yours. Try and save some springs for the lasers." The player is given bug bullets which they can use to destroy cracked walls, although they can also use boost pads to jump over them, save for the last one which must be destroyed. They then gain a mega bounce power-up and are presented with the same obstacles and options, with using the mega bounce power-up being required sometimes in order to get tokens and multipliers. The player uses several turbo boosts to cross an incredibly large gap, and then they use a boost pad to another track in order to finish. Level 12 "Ram everything in sight. Sometimes things look out of reach but what you need is a spring." The player is assaulted by a smorgasbord of enemies and obstacles and is given a variety of ways to get through them: Mega Bounce, Invincibility, Turbo, and Shockwave. There are a few large jumps requiring the use of the mega bounce power-up. Level 13 "Some times the best weapons are hidden." The player is given a large range of powerups and alternate routes, with the goal being to use different powerups in the paths that suits them best. Level 14 "Hitting walls will severely affect your speed." The player must avoid very long walls and later on is given bug bullets so that they can destroy cracked walls. They then get a mega bounce power-up which has to be used to cross some large gaps before the end of the level. Level 15 "Spot on timing is essential." The player must navigate very curvy roads that have many deviations and jumps must be timed in order to get on a desired path and avoid falling off the edge. The player must also leap up to get to higher tracks, and then will go to two separate tracks, which they must jump between in order to avoid walls. Level 16 "Mind the gap." The player has to leap over some green spikes before encountering fans, and the two hazards are then combined. They then gain invincibility as they ram through robots, though they must still navigate through fans. Afterwards they are given a mega bounce and can jump between two separate paths while still dealing with fans. After jumping to higher paths, the player is given bug bullets to shoot robots with, and then hits a few turbo pads before the end. Level 17 "Wind affects your bullets too." The player races through many fans and then encounters a robot, only its bullets are blown away by the wind. The player also encounter aliens and has the option of leaping over some enemies and cracked walls with the mega bounce power-up or blasting through them with bug bullets. However, the winds will also alter the path of the player's bug bullets. The player hits a few turbo pads and must go through one more fan in turbo before the level ends. Level 18 "This is it! The last one!" The player gains invincibility and hits several turbo pads in order to cross the largest gap yet, but must not activate invincibility until they cross in order to be able to ram through the massive horde of aliens on the other side. The player gains another invincibility power-up and hits more turbo pads as they make more horizontal jumps and ram through squids. The player crosses an even larger gap onto a very narrow track with more turbo pads which sends them blazing all the way to the end. Ending Interactive objects These are the interactive objects of Flashcat. * Turbo pads - Gives the caterpillar an extra boost in speed. * Boost pads - Shoots the Cat up Power-Ups Pickups come in the form of tokens on the track, which the player can obtain by having the cat run over them. * Point tokens - Give the player extra points. * Mega bounce - Allows the caterpillar to bounce three times while on the course. * Invincibility - The cat will not be affected by any enemies or hazards when this pickup is used. * Bug bullets - Provides bullets that the cat can fire to defend himself from enemies. * Turbo - The cat is given a large boost in speed * Shockwave - A bump is created to wipe out all enemies in current view of the player Hazards * Spiked walls - Short obstacles with spikes that the caterpillar can jump over. * Cracked walls - Like walls, they block the cat's path, but will hurt him on contact. * Walls - Blocks the path of the Cat on the course * Lasers - A Beam of energy that the player has to jump over * Fans - Pipes which blow gusts of air that can blow the player off the track Enemies These are the enemies in Flash Cat. *'Aliens' - Enemies that block the track *'Squids' - Enemies who repeatedly fire bullets on sight *'Robots' - Cannon like enemies that fire bullets Scoring The player gains a score based on their time, and the score gained by Tokens. These two scores are added together for the total score. Nitrome Touchy version Flash Cat was included in the ten launch titles upon Nitrome Touchy's release. The device displays a screen that resembles Flash Cat's control pad. An array of buttons allow the player to jump, brake and use collected powerups. Steering is done by tilting the controller in the direction the player wants the cat to veer off in. Flash Cat Front Screen.png|The main screen Flash Cat Controls.png|The controls Flash Cat Controls Help.png|The first help screen Awards |Jay is Games |2010 |Best of Casual Gameplay 2009 |Best Action or Arcade game (Browser games) | |} Beta elements In flashcat.swf/shapes/DefineShape3 (641) there is an unused variation of wall with graffiti on it. Flash Cat wall unused.png|The unused wall variation Trivia * If the player goes to far to the right while in the air, they will bend the graphics, making them look like buildings. This is best done on level fourteen. * Power ups are given different names throughout the game. An example is mega bounce being called spring and bounce in the description before the level. * Flash Cat has several similarities to Fat Cat. Both of them star a cat and an animal, and have similar sound effects. The groans of pain of the Flash Cat are the same as the ones of the cat in Fat Cat, the sound of the Flash Cat obtaining a token is the same as the cat in Fat Cat eating food. * Mat revealed during a Flash Gaming Summit that Flash Cat is not really 3D, the game is really only 2D sprites on a 3D plane.Nitrome Dev Chat Incrue: What are your opinion about 3D in flash?Because you’ve made flash cat, and no more 3D after it Mat Annal: Flash Cat isn’t actually real 3D it is just lots of scaled sprites on a 3D plane. *Although a button for braking is available in both Flash and Nitrome Touchy versions of Flash Cat, it is completely optional to use. The player can complete the game without using it. References Category:Games Category:Nitrome Touchy games Category:2009 games Category:Music by Dave Cowen Category:Programming by Carl Trelfa Category:Art by Simon Hunter Category:Level-based games Category:Browser games Category:Distributable games